BOOKS FESTIVAL
BY DANIEL SHABANOV | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
Every year, since 2011, the National Library named after Rasul Gamzatov holds the book fair “Tarki-Tau”. Marat Hajiyev, the artist and journalist, is the initiator of this fair. This year the fair was held for the 8th time and was held from September 19 to September 21. The grand opening of the fair was on September 19, The festival was attended by Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Dagestan Anatoly Karibov, famous artists, folk poets, members of the Union of Writers of the Republic of Dagestan and participants of the fair. For three days it was impossible to find silence in the library because there were meetings with writers and round tables where interesting topics and current issues in literature were discussed. I would like to note that this year the Canadian poet, Randy Cohen, came to the fair. I think that the fair can now have an ‘international’ title! My beloved friends — the Apriori Press publishing house – also came to the fair. I remember the presentation of the story about the tragedy of the Yakut intelligentsia “At the bottom of the abyss” (author Elena Sleptsova). During the fair, the participants presented not only their books, but also the types of creativity of their peoples. So, Elena played the excellent wind instrument, Vargan! The second event that impressed me was the presentation of children’s books in the 11 national languages of the peoples of Dagestan. Here the question of publishing children’s literature was raised. The most interesting presentation, in my opinion, was the literary contest of reading verses “Tarki-Tau Lights” composed by children themselves. Love the books!
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